Trying to find a WiFi signal
I am back from my Italian adventure, enjoying every minute of walking down narrow Roman alleys, biking past Umbrian fields, and eating and drinking the riches of the campagna. I was undecided about bringing along the 7” Cruz Reader until the very last minute when my instinctual urges to check for emails won out. I had a fully charged tablet when I left the US.
When I arrived at the hotel in Rome, Velocity Micro’s tablet didn’t have enough oomph to power on. I began to notice a pattern. I would charge the slab for a few hours, use it for a bit, then go out and have my vacation. The next morning I would discover that the Reader had an uncanny ability to leak its charge overnight. As they say in Italian: basta! (enough).
This alone seals the deal for me: I can’t use this thing. This is not a glitch, it’s a serious design flaw or more likely a manufacturing error—there’s a short-circuit in the circuitry.
There’s more bad news.
Even when the Cruz Reader was fully operational, it had a difficult time connecting with Italian hot spots. I believe it may have problems with less than full-strength wireless networks. For five-bar wireless signals, it habitually dropped connections or hung up trying to reconnect. My romance with the low-priced Cruz Reader was over. I am returning the table to Velocity Micro ASAP.
My experience may be unique or represent a small percentage of Velocity’s output. Still, I would be wary of this first batch of Cruz Readers. For those who are planning on purchasing the Cruz Reader from Borders, caveat emptor.
As a side note, Rome may have hauntingly beautiful alleys and teaming cafes, but they are behind New York in public WiFi. On the other hand, with an active and vibrant street life, one wonders about a need for social networking when the real-thing is happening in front of you. I’ll take this up in another post.
It’s great to be back in NJ!
Related articles
- Cruz Reader:Tablet Lite (technoverseblog.com)
- Velocity Micro Cruz Reader hits stores, Cruz Tablet hitting in October along with more in January (engadget.com)
- Hey, $199 Cruz Reader Ships in September (technoverseblog.com)
